Veterinary Voices — Episode 280 — Transcript

Competitive Remuneration — The Two Words That Say Nothing

The Elephant In The Room — Episode 5

What is the single most important thing vets and nurses need to see in a job ad?

[00:00]

What do you think is the single most important thing that vets and nurses need to see in a job ad?

Do you think it would be culture, the location, or the equipment — or maybe something else entirely?

That's what we're chatting about today.

Hi, I'm Julie South and you're listening to Veterinary Voices — culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics.

This is Episode 280, and it's the fifth in the Elephant in the Room series.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs — helping clinics get applications from Their Kind of People.

Stay to the end, because today I want to talk about why clinics won't put salary ranges in their ads and why that decision is likely costing them — maybe you — more than you'd like to consider.

What does research say vets and nurses want most in a veterinary job advertisement?

[01:06]

Back in 2023, VetStaff — a sister company to VetClinicJobs — undertook some pretty serious research with Unitec Te Pukenga.

The research was all about what it took vets and nurses to click on a job ad.

[01:20]

The single biggest number — it stood out like a country mile — was that almost 97% of respondents rated salary as important or most important when looking for a new role.

[01:35]

And when asked what attracts them to read a job ad in the first place, salary band information came in at 41%, just behind the headline at 43%.

[01:50]

Now, just to clarify — the research was international. We had respondents from nine countries, not just New Zealand, although most were from New Zealand. Regardless of what country you're in, pay information is what vets and nurses want most.

Salary band is what gets them to read.

And yet most vet clinic job ads say boring old vanilla things like competitive remuneration.

Why does "competitive remuneration" mean nothing to vets and nurses?

[02:07]

Two words. Technically true — presumably — because no clinic is going to write "below average remuneration."

But what does "competitive" mean? Competitive with whom? Compared to what? In what region? As of when?

[02:30]

It means nothing. And vets and nurses know that it means nothing. They've read it on pretty much every ad they've ever seen, and it's become the phrase that signals: we're not going to tell you.

[02:44]

Which immediately raises the question every intelligent person asks when someone won't answer — why on earth not?

Why won't vet clinics put salary ranges in their job ads?

[03:08]

Over the last seven years, here are the top two reasons that clinics have told me why they won't put a salary range in their ad.

[03:13]

The first one — they don't want to lock themselves in. Pretty much everyone knows that pay is always dependent on qualifications and experience. But they justify this by qualifying it with their need for flexibility to make an offer that reflects who they end up hiring — not a number they committed to in an ad three months or so ago.

Reasonable, I guess. Kinda. But to me that's a sit-on-the-fence answer.

[03:44]

And the second one — they're worried that the clinic down the road will see it, better it, and poach their next new hire before they've even met them. Yes, that's also understandable. And to me it's also a sit-on-the-fence answer.

[04:00]

Because if you're not paying enough, you're not paying enough.

Having said that, I will concede that some clinics pay way above everyone else simply because they cannot get vets or nurses any other way — because the only good thing in their clinic is the pay.

[04:19]

The problem is that everyone has the same fear. So everyone writes "competitive remuneration."

And that's how vanilla is made.

What happens when every vet clinic job ad says the same thing about pay?

[04:27]

Every ad looks identical and the vet or the nurse reading it has nothing to go on for the most important piece of information they are trying to find.

[04:35] (mid-roll)

I just want to interrupt briefly here with a bit of a shameless plug.

If you're wondering what a vet or a nurse finds when they search for your clinic right now online — how about you book a one-hour consult with me? We'll look at it together and you'll be able to see what's showing up through fresh eyes.

julie@vetclinicjobs.com.

Now let's get back to today's show.

Is not listing a salary range a red flag for vets and nurses applying for jobs?

[05:15]

The same research showed that poor salary or remuneration was one of the top two red flags that would stop or stall an application — right up there with high staff turnover.

[05:28]

Vets and nurses are actively looking for salary information, and they're put off by what looks like poor pay. And the signal that tells them you might be in the poor pay category — whether you mean to send it or not, whether that's the impression you want to give or not — is refusing to say what you pay.

[05:49]

Competitive remuneration doesn't reassure them. It just raises suspicion.

Does naming a salary range in a vet clinic job ad help attract more applicants?

[05:56]

The clinic that names a range — even a broad one — is telling a vet or nurse something important: we're prepared to be transparent about what this role is worth.

[06:08]

The clinics that won't are leaving them to wonder. And wondering is where applications stall and don't happen.

[06:30]

There's a way through this that doesn't require locking yourself in — and some clinics are doing it already, just not enough of them.

A range is a starting point, not a contract.

[06:33]

For example, "salary range X to Y depending on qualifications and experience" — that's honest and specific, and the final offer can still land anywhere within that range based on who you hire. The clinic hasn't promised anything it can't deliver.

[06:51]

What it has done is given a vet or a nurse enough to decide whether to keep reading. And the research says that's exactly what they need.

How does salary transparency help a vet clinic stand out from competitors?

[07:04]

If you've been writing "competitive remuneration" because everyone else does it and because you're worried about being undercut — that's the elephant in your recruitment room right now.

Because everyone doing the same thing means the floor stays flat for everyone.

[07:21]

The clinic that names the range stands out from the field immediately — for the one reason that matters most to the people you're trying to attract.

[07:32]

Email me. julie@vetclinicjobs.com. And if you'd like a copy of the research, just say so — I'm happy to send it out to you.

What is coming up next in The Elephant In The Room podcast series?

[07:45]

Next week in The Elephant In The Room — the new graduate experience. What clinics promise when they're trying to attract new grads, and what new grads find when they get there — including the ones who leave within months and tell their whole cohort why.

[08:13]

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self — because you're working with Your Kind of People.

And remember — competitive remuneration tells a vet or nurse you have a salary. It doesn't tell them whether it's worth their time to apply.

Until next week.